CHAP.
IX.

Letters.

I etter

on the memorials of the Saints.

since the reformation, and with prayer and preaching alone, apart from the exploded superstitious rites.i

Among his letters of this date, we find the excellent consolatory one to Spalatinus, quoted by Dr. Milner, iv. 418, 419: and a very pious one to the electress, while the elector was absent at the diet of Spires-in which he says of himself, "I have lived long enough: may God send me a happy dismissal from this vile body! I have seen whatever is best to be seen upon earth: things appear inclining to the worse: may God be our helper!" In another to Corvinus, superintendant of the dutchy of Hanover, he mentions Elizabeth of Brandenburg, widow of the duke Eric, as having come to Wittemberg, with her son, and sending for Luther to dine with her; on which occasion he had catechised the young prince, and been greatly pleased with his progress in religious knowledge. He prays for him, and charges Corvinus and others to do the same, sensible to what dangers he would be exposed on coming out into life.2

A letter of Luther's to Spalatinus, prefixed as a preface to a collection which that worthy person had made of the examples and sayings of pious men, contains many excellent sentiments. "I am much pleased, my dear Spalatinus, with your design of collecting the acts and sayings of the saints of God; and I doubt not that it will be acceptable to God himself, and to the people of God. Things of this kind tend not only to stop the mouths of those who reproach us as introducing new doctrines, but also to confirm our own minds by the testimony

1 Seck. iii. 516.

2 Ib. 519, 520. Above. p. 359.

of so great a cloud of witnesses, who have thought and spoken, and acted, and suffered in the same manner with ourselves. For, though each one's own faith in the word of God ought to support his resolution of standing, though it were alone, in the conflict against the gates of hell, yet even when the spirit is willing the flesh is weak: and therefore it is a great confirmation to the pious mind to trace in so many excellent men, through successive ages, the same things as it meets with in its own daily experience. Even in the best of men, indeed, there have been many things said and done under the influence of the flesh, and the law of sin warring against the law of the mind, according to what we read in Romans vii; to say nothing of the falsehoods which have been foisted into their histories by the children of the wicked one: yet, when the confession of sin and the struggle against it are concerned, we see how purely and constantly they avow their faith. What could have been said more pious or more becoming in S. Ambrose, than when, in his last conflict against sin, death, the wrath of God, and the threats of hell, he boldly pronounced to the presbyters who stood about him, 'I have not so lived as to be ashamed to continue among you; nor do I fear to die, since we serve a gracious Master'? S. Augustine, in his last agony, as Possidonius relates, highly commended this sentiment of Ambrose. The same Augustine also comforted himself against the charges of conscience (the source of severest trial in the hour of death,) in the following words: 'I shall be troubled but not distressed, because I think

1 Turbabor, sed non perturbabor. See 2 Cor. iv. 8-10.

A. D. 1544.

CHAP.
IX:

on the sufferings of my Saviour.' Who does
not see, that in sentences like these the most
holy men declare their faith in Christ, a faith
sole and exclusive, yet firm and victorious over
sin and death? For, though they judge their
life to be irreproachable among men, (as it
ought to be, and must be,) yet before God they
rely entirely on his mercy and grace, and fly
to the wounds of Christ, as the doves to the
clefts of the rock.'-We do well, therefore, first
to separate the histories of the saints from the
falsehoods with which they have been mixed
up, and then, rightly dividing the word of
truth, to try them by the rule and analogy of
faith-according to the apostolic direction,
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
But what room would there be for this admo-
nition, if all that was said and done by the
saints were to be received implicitly, like articles
of faith? No: they were holy men, but yet
men; in whom divine grace had yet to struggle
against corrupt nature. Where therefore they
spoke and acted under the influence of the
Spirit, their sayings and actions are worthy to
be preserved, as what the Lord Christ wrought
in them but, where the contrary, there we
are to bear with them, and consider this as per-
mitted for our encouragement, since we see
that the saints of God were infirm beings like
ourselves, and each one of them bore about
with him in his flesh the remains of sin.-On
these accounts I wish your book to be published:
but do not bestow upon me such lavish-if I
did not know your sincerity, I should
say, such
false-commendation. I know that I am no-
thing. Farewell in the Lord! Pray for me,

that I may have a happy transition from this
body of sin and death! Amen.
1544."1

March 8th,

A. D.

1545.

Heltus.

George Heltus Forcheim has been men- On the tioned, as the preceptor of Prince George of death of Anhalt and other eminent persons. We will here insert part of a letter from Luther to George of Anhalt on his death. It is dated March 9, 1545.

"Grace and peace to you in Christ! So then, most illustrious prince, our friend Heltus is gone, leaving us to lament him! O my God, at a time when we have need of many holy men to comfort and strengthen us by their prayers, their counsels, and their assistance, thou takest away even the few that are left us! We know, O God, that the prayers and the labours of the departed, who most ardently loved and zealously served thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and was most useful to thy church, were well-pleasing in thy sight. Certainly I myself placed great confidence in his prayers, and derived great consolation from them. How severe a wound then must you have suffered, most excellent prince, by the removal of one with whom you lived on terms of such faithful and endeared friendship. But it is well with him. Gathered to his fathers and to his people, he finds more and better companions there than he has left behind. But our lot is trying, who live, or drag on a sort of dying existence, here in Sodom and Babylon, and find the number of good men diminish in proportion as the state of things, daily declining towards what is worse, requires an increase of them. But the wisdom of God is to be adored, who, when he is about

1 Seck. iii. 518. Strobel. 327.

CHAP.
IX.

to accomplish something great, and surpassing our hopes, first seems to annihilate all expectation, and to reduce us to despair: as it is written, He bringeth down to the grave, (ad inferos,) and bringeth up again. He does this, to teach us the exercise of faith, hope, and love towards him; and that we may learn to esteem things not seen above those which do appear, and against hope to believe in hope, and to depend on him who calleth things which are not as though they were. Then, while he takes away from us all his most pleasant gifts, and exhibits himself to us as if his kindness and his loveliness had come utterly to an end, at that very time he is thinking most especially, and I might almost say anxiously, the thoughts of love towards us. By means like these it is that the old man is slain, the body of sin destroyed. -Wherefore comfort yourself, most excellent prince, according to the rich measure in which it has been given you to know God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and to meditate on all the operations of his hands. It shall be my prayer, that the God of all consolation would confirm and strengthen you by his Holy Spirit, until the appointed end of these trials is accomplished. For, as it is said in Jeremiah, He doth not willingly grieve the children of men. And Augustine says, God would not permit evil to exist, if he had not some greater good to bring out of it.-We are yet in the flesh, and know not what to ask or how to ask it; that is, to ask what is good for us: but He, who is able to do above all we ask or think, careth for us: he can do for us beyond what the narrowness of our hearts allows us to desire, or even to imagine. But it is necessary, in order to his doing this, that he should first take